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Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under banner headline: “There Is No Peace” Could Still Be Published Today!
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%: Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
Images of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
We live in a state of perpetual war, and we never feel it. While you get your gelato at the hip place where they put those cute little mint leaves on the side, someone is being bombed in your name. While you argue with the 17-year-old at the movie theater who gave you a small popcorn when you paid for a large, someone is being obliterated in your name. While we sleep and eat and make love and shield our eyes on a sunny day, someone’s home, family, life and body are being blown into a thousand pieces in our names. —Lee Camp, Trump’s Military Drops a Bomb Every 12 Minutes, and No One Is Talking About It
In a 1992 editorial, the late Arnold S. Relman, MD, then editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, singled out physician self-referral [25] as a prime example of the “growing encroachment of commercialism on medical practice” [38], which he termed the “medical-industrial complex” [39]. A highly influential thesis, this far-reaching observation has withstood the test of time. However, its impact on the commercialization of medicine and on the attendant ethical fallout remains debatable. Consider the matter of self-referral. The detrimental consequences of self-referral are well documented [21, 22, 27-29, 40-44]. However, opinions as to its value and its ethical implications remain as irreconcilable as ever [45].— Money and Medicine: Indivisible and Irreconcilable
John Williams of shadowstats.com has a long-term tradition of trying to hold US govenment data reporting agencies and financial presstiutes accountable, but as in every aspect of US reporting fantasies prevail over reality. For example, according to the Federal Reserve and the presstitute financial press, US inflation is less than 2 percent. Here is the Chapwood index, based on actually going out and purchasing items in the inflation asket. As for the great consumer economy we hear about, here are the IRS statistics of the distribution of wage earners by level of net compensation: 50 % of wage earners had net compensation less than $30,534 in 2016. The rich are a tiny percent of the population and cannot sustain a consumer economy. — Paul Craig Roberts, America Is Losing Its Economy
Videos of the Day:
U.S.:
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.— The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!
Bolton Is In Israel Conferring With Netanyahu How To Provoke US Attack On Iran As I posted on June 22, the world still faces the danger of an attack on Iran by Washington acting as an agent of Netanyahu.
Israeli agent John Bolton is already in Israel conferring with Netanyahu. It is a safe bet that a more serious false flag attack is being planned that will force Trump to save face by attacking Iran. If Israel and its neoconservative American agents succeed in setting the Middle East on fire, it will also be the fault of the Russian and Chinese leadership. The Russians and Chinese could stabilize the situation by announcing a NATO-type alliance with Iran and putting military forces in the country, and by informing the criminal Netanyahu that if war breaks out Israel is the first to go. By Paul Craig Roberts
Onward Christian Soldiers: US Governor Signs Law Allowing Church a Private Police Force The law approved two weeks ago allows the Birmingham-based mega-church to set-up a private law enforcement department which would have the same powers as regular police. United States (U.S.) governor from the southern state of Alabama, Kay Ivey, has signed a law permitting Briarwood Presbyterian Church to establish its own police force for its church and school campuses.
Yankee Worship of Bombings and Endless Wars “From Syria to Yemen in the Middle East, from Libya to Somalia in Africa, from Afghanistan to Pakistan in South Asia, all forming a U.S. air curtain descending on a huge swath of the planet with the declared goal of fighting terrorism. Its main method is summed up in surveillance, bombardments and more constant bombardments. Its political benefit is to minimize the number of “United States boots on the ground” and, therefore, American casualties in the never-ending war on terrorism, as well as public protests over Washington’s many conflicts. It’s economic benefit: plenty of high-performance business for arms manufacturers for whom the president can now declare a national security emergency whenever he wants and sell his warplanes and ammunition to preferred dictatorships in the Middle East (no congressional approval required). Its reality for several foreign peoples: a sustained diet of bombs and missiles “Made in the USA” that explode here, there and everywhere. By Manuel E. Yepe
Because ‘Drums of War Are Beating,’ Bernie Sanders Says Everything Must Be Done to Prevent US Attack on Iran“Voices of dissent went unheeded in the lead-up to the Iraq war,” says the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. “They must be heeded now.” As the threat of war “looms” amidst a coordinated push by the Trump administration that has ratcheted up tensions with Iran, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on the U.S. Congress and the American people to work together to ensure that another mistake like the 2003 invasion of Iraq—”the biggest foreign policy disaster in American history”—is not allowed to happen again. By Jon Queally
Environment:
Week 126: Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule: Neither Affordable nor Clean. Let’s Discuss. Also, Trump finds a new way to limit scientific advice to his administration. By Week 126: Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule: Neither Affordable nor Clean. Let’s Discuss. Also, Trump finds a new way to limit scientific advice to his administration. By Brian Palmer
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Labors’ Race to the Bottom!
[The Neoliberal Labor Bureaucracy declared itself to be in a (Domestic) Partnership With the Boss’ (‘Bedding the Boss!’)! Starting in the mid-1980s, This ‘partnership’ gave birth to the one, two, three, ect. .. wage tier system! Selling out the futures of future young workers entering the labor force. And, since the lowest union wage is the immediately the highest non-union wage, this wage tier system cut the wages of the entire working class! When I was a union official, I called this system labors rush to the bottom! The Graph Below is a Graphic Example of the Decline in Standard of Living of the Working Class, Since the Trade Union Bureaucracy Declared Itself to Be ‘In a (Domestic) Partnership With the Boss’(Class Cooperation)! Through the 1980s and 199os they even included this ‘partnership’ into their work agreements and the partnership was fully established! Starting in the mid-1980s, This ‘partnership’ gave birth to the one, two, three, three ect. .. wage tier system! Selling out the futures of future young workers entering the labor force. And, since the lowest union wage is the immediately the highest non-union wage, this wage tier system cut the wages of the entire working class! When I was a union official, I called this system labors rush to the bottom! As in graphically shown in this: Shadow Government Statistics Graph.— R.S.]
Graph 20: Real Average Weekly Earnings, 1965 to May 2019 Real Average Weekly Earnings – Production and Nonsupervisory Employees Deflated by CPI-W versus ShadowStats-Alternate (1990-Base) 1965 to May 2019, Seasonally-Adjusted [ShadowStats, BLS]
Should the left fight for workers’ demands? Or for the rights of trans people? Workerism or wokeism?These struggles are often presented as mutually exclusive. But a factory from Argentina shows that when workers fight for equal rights for everyone, they are fighting for their own interests. Should the left fight for workers’ demands? Or for the rights of trans people? Workerism or wokeism? These struggles are often presented as mutually exclusive. But a factory from Argentina shows that when workers fight for equal rights for everyone, they are fighting for their own interests. The Donnelley factory north of Buenos Aires is Argentina’s biggest printing plant, producing high-gloss magazines for international clients. But it no longer belongs to the Chicago-based Donnelley corporation. On August 12, 2014, the factory’s workers took it over, and since then they have continued production under their own management, transformed the old factory into a cooperative called Madygraf. The occupation came in response to management’s plans to fire 123 of the plant’s 400 workers. But this was possible only as the result of a long process of organizing within the workforce. One important step in that process was the fight to defend the rights of a trans colleague. The bosses had a sexist policy of hiring only men to work the printing presses.
Economy:
- Updated Alert: New Recession Breaks into the Open, with an Annual Decline in Freight Activity Not Seen Since the Great Recession, May 2019 Zero Net Payroll Growth and Quarterly Contractions in Key Series
- As the Downturn Intensifies, So Too Should U.S. Dollar Selling and Flight to Gold, With the Stock Market Vulnerable to Massive Selling
- Fed Chair Powell Hinted at Possible Later Easing, but Current Conditions Justify Greater Accommodation Now; New Quantitative Easing Is Possible by September
- With FOMC Easing Hinted, U.S. Stocks Rose to New Highs; but a Greater Dollar Plunge and a Greater Gold Price Surge Each More Than Offset the Stock Gains
- Excessive FOMC Tightening and Rate Hikes Triggered the New Downturn
- When the Fed Shifted to Its Restrictive Monetary Stance,
Much of the U.S. Economy Still Had Not Recovered from Its Collapse into 2009; That Exacerbated Already Heavily Negative Consumer Financial Conditions
- Tightening Has Continued, With the May 2019 Monetary Base at a Six-Year Low, Down 3.2% (-3.2%) From December 2018
- Full Economic Recovery Requires More than Interest Rate Cuts and FOMC Easing
- Also Needed Are Meaningful Tax Cuts for Main Street U.S.A., and Stimulative Government Spending, Despite the Ongoing Budget-Deficit Disaster
- In Response to Such Deficit-Busting Stimulus, Global Markets Likely Would Savage the Dollar, Unless the U.S. Government First Could Put in Place a Credible Plan for Balancing Its Finances Once Economic Conditions Had Stabilized
- Government Action Is Unlikely, Though, Shy of Response to a Financial Crisis or Panic
World:
US’s Kushner: Plan is ‘Opportunity’ Critics Call ‘Out of Step’ Trump’s son-in-law has put himself in charge of revamping Palestine and the surrounding region with an economic plan critics say is ‘illegal’ and ‘out of sequence.’ Trump’s “deal of the century” calls for a US$50 billion investment in the Middle East and Arab region with the hopes of revitalizing Palestine and neighboring country conomies, according to parts of the document seen by Reuters.
Palestinians Dismiss Economic Portion of Kushner Plan as Dead-on-Arrival Failure“Kushner can’t tell us he cares about ending poverty for Palestinians while inflicting more poverty on them.” By Jon Queally
She Defended Her Land Against A Mine In Guatemala. Then She Fled In Fear For Her Life Teresa Muñoz was riding her motorbike along her regular delivery route on a winding Guatemala road, carrying the homemade cheese she sold for a living, when she saw in her rearview mirror one of the white sedans that employees of the Escobal silver mine drove. Mining company cars had followed her before, but this time, the vehicle swerved. The driver rammed her motorbike, pitching her into the street, and then sped off. Muñoz was left bruised and scraped, convinced they’d meant to kill her. By Alleen Brown
Israel’s Secretive Nuclear Facility Leaking as Watchdog Finds Israel Has Nearly 100 Nukes Israel is one of only five nations in the world that refuse to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, an international treaty aimed at ending the proliferation of nuclear weapons and achieving global nuclear disarmament. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) — an international watchdog organization focusing on conflicts, the arms trade and nuclear proliferation — released a new report on Monday that claimed that Israel has nearly a hundred nuclear warheads, more than previously thought.The SIPRI report described Israel’s nuclear arsenal as follows: 30 gravity bombs capable of delivering nuclear weapons by fighter jets; an additional 50 warheads that can be delivered by land-based ballistic missiles; and an unknown number of nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missiles that would grant Israel a sea-based second-strike capability. By Whitney Webb
Health, Education, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘govern’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers the to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
Venezuelan Community Builds Solidarity Pharmacy to Counter US Sanctions
‘Fund Climate Solutions, Not Endless War’: 22 Arrested Demanding US Build Windmills, Not Warships” We engaged in civil resistance to underscore our conversion demand,” said one of those arrested. Pentagon-funded shipyards “should be helping to solve the climate crisis, not building weapons that make the problem worse.” By Jon Queally
Shadow Government Statistic Commentary Number 984 Financial-Market Alert and Economic Review—June 24, 2019